for 15 months

Gay British singer Boy George has been sent to prison for 15 months for falsely imprisoning a male escort in George's London apartment.

George and an accomplice handcuffed Audun Carlsen to George's bed ( or wall; reports varied ) and allegedly beat him, accusing him of having stolen nude photos from George's laptop that were taken during a previous rendezvous between George and Carlsen after they met on Gaydar.co.uk.

Judge David Radford said the attack on Carlsen was "callous and humiliating" and "shocked, degraded and traumatized him."

"He was deprived of his liberty and human dignity without warning or proper explanation to him of its purpose, length or purported justification," Radford said.

Carlsen eventually escaped and ran into the street in his underwear, still wearing handcuffs.

London's Daily Telegraph paid George a visit in prison and reported: "Overweight and looking the picture of misery, the troubled singer sits on a bed, writing autographs for the trickle of curious fellow inmates from London's Pentridge Prison who have demanded them."

British reports said George has been given an $8.40-a-week job in the prison kitchen serving food.

Nigerian House

votes to ban

same-sex marriage

Nigeria's House of Representatives voted unanimously in mid-January to ban "marriage between persons of same gender, solemnization of same and other matters related therewith."

Leo Igwe of the Nigerian Humanist Movement called the vote "a step backward for Nigeria's democracy and a breach of the nation's human rights obligations."

"Banning gay marriage will increase homophobia and attacks on lesbian and gay people," Igwe said. "It will undermine Nigeria's efforts to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS, especially among gays. ( W ) e humanists call on President Musa Yar'dua not to sign this oppressive and retrogressive bill into law."

On Jan. 21, the European Parliament's Intergroup on Gay and Lesbian Rights called for suspension of European Union aid to Nigeria "unless the state homophobia in the country is terminated."

"The only result this law is going to achieve is raising hatred against gay, lesbian and transgender citizens of Nigeria," said Intergroup President Michael Cashman. "I do not understand how legislators in such a big and diverse country can be so cruel and indifferent to millions of their own people who are already such a marginalized and oppressed minority."

Polish MP to be

reprimanded over

blog post

Polish MP Janusz Palikot will be reprimanded by his ruling Civic Platform party for writing on his blog that former Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, who heads the opposition Law and Justice Party, should, once and for all, tell the public whether he's gay.

In a follow-up post, Palikot reportedly added that he has been contacted by people who claim Kaczynski sexually molested them.

Kaczynski has been sporadically and casually outed over the years, without evidence, by gay activists, newspapers and even former President Lech Walesa. Kaczynski, whose identical-twin brother is Polish President Lech Kaczynski, has never been married and reportedly has always lived with his mother and a cat.

As punishment for his blog posts, Palikot will lose his position as chair of Parliament's Friendly State committee, which oversees removal of government red tape, the Warsaw Voice reported Jan. 21.

Brit adoption agencies

change mind

about closing

After receiving a nearly two-year exemption from a British law that bans anti-gay discrimination by adoption agencies, five of 11 Roman Catholic agencies that suggested they would shut down rather than obey the law have decided to remain open.

The exemption expired Jan. 1.

Of the other six agencies, one will close, two are pursuing new tactics to circumvent the law, and three have not made their intentions known.

The Equality Act, which came into force in April 2007, banned discrimination based on sexual orientation in the provision of goods and services in England, Wales and Scotland.

Aussie gay partners

gain access to

military pensions

Australian gays and lesbians will have access to their deceased partners' military pensions starting in July.

The move follows a 2003 ruling by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, which found Australia's refusal to grant the pensions in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

The case was brought by Edward Young of Sydney, whose partner of 38 years died 10 years ago.

"What I wanted was to take on the little man, ( former Prime Minister John ) Howard, and fight," Young told The Sydney Morning Herald. "What I wanted was something that would apply right across the board."

After the 2003 ruling, the former Howard government procrastinated in reviewing its policy. Howard was replaced by Kevin Rudd in December.

Hungarian domestic-

partnership law

struck down

Hungary's domestic-partnership law, which was to take effect Jan. 1, was struck down by the Constitutional Court Dec. 15.

The court said the law is unconstitutional because it would have given the rights of marriage to opposite-sex couples who are not married.

A domestic-partnership law limited to gay couples only, however, would not be unconstitutional, the court ruled.

"The decision argues that ... allowing different-sex couples to enter into a relationship very similar to that of marriage duplicates the institution of marriage, and thus contradicts the special protection of marriage enshrined in the Constitution," said Tamás Dombos of Hungary's Háttér Support Society for LGBT People.

Following the decision, Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány instructed the minister of justice to prepare a new registered-partnership bill taking into account the court's determination.

—Assistance: Bill Kelley